22 November 2008

If I Had a Trillion Dollars

Congress is still waiting for the banks to ignite this economy with the $700 billion they've been offered. Last night, my wife Sandi and buddy Rick were making the point that money ought to pumped into actual projects. Rick thinks that infrastructure should be created (e.g., high speed train that links Vancouver, BC, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco) and rebuilt (e.g., crumbling bridges). This would create work twice - once for the infrastructure project and again for the business it would facilitate.

If you 1 trillion dollars to spray around at the economy like a kid trying to wake a sleeping dog, where would you direct it? What projects would you fund?

4 comments:

I think repairing bridges and roads is a good start, but I'd consider building a new nation-wide high-speed wireless internet infrastructure, too. I think there could be benefits to getting everybody on line, and if nothing else this would create some high-tech jobs. Building roads is important, but many of those jobs are menial.

The other project I'd like to fund- and this sounds like I'm joking, but I'm not- Robot Space Station on Mars. Such a project would result in breakthroughs in robotics, electronics, and computer science- all of which have real-world applications right now- and would be a lot cheaper and safer than a manned mission.

I love the idea of cool as criteria for spending. It drives most of what we spend in fashion, music, cars ... Why not government spending? And really, if Obama can make what government buys cool once again ... well how cool would that be?

A trillion dollars... wow, that's a hard one. All that comes to mind is a vanity indulging mega closet full of Laboutin shoes in my size but, I'm sure this reply is not what you were envisioning at all when you asked the question Ron.

Milena,Laboutin shoes for a trillion dollars? I doubt that even a family of fashionable centipedes could blow through that much on shoes. But then again, I haven't a clue about Laboutin shoes - much less their price.